Mr Shiva Subramanian
I'm Siva Subramaniam.... founder of Connect ventures and.... we're back again with "Bite Sized BugSpeaks" and.... I have Kumar again with me.... and this time from Biome Shankar he is going to be rechristened to Genetics Kumar.... because this is his other expertise in his field.
Come on you wanna say a couple of things
Mr Kumar Sankaran:
Thanks Shiva
Hi, I'm Kumar Sankaran
Today I am genetics wanna be.... discussing more about... again, health and having fun with health.
So... what's the report that you have in your hand?
Mr Shiva Subramanian:
So... today we want to talk to you about genetics.... and [specifically about]... a unique panel for organic testing.
We were actually looking at bringing nutrition to every person... but I want to just cover why it's important or not important to have organic food.
Mr Kumar Sankaran:
With the modern techniques of farming, the amount of chemicals that we are ingesting is actually toxic to our body and every individual breaks down those toxins in a different way... so we had to look at the genetic makeup of an individual and see how the chemicals coming from modern farming is actually affecting his/her body... and that's what this entire panel was about.
And what's interesting now is that... with all this organic farming that is happening all over the world... how much of that organic food needs to go to a person is what needs to be determined.
Mr Kumar Sankaran:
What do you think about organic farming... in general?
Mr Shiva Subramanian:
I think it's great to have organic food... but we need to discuss why it's relevant to help at all. One of the reasons that we actually are covering this topic is the fact that... all performance is also based on the amount of toxins that you put in [to the body]... so if you reduce the toxic load your performance is going to go up... because then you have more resources to deal
with performance... then if you had to deal with a lot of toxins coming in.
The next question that we had to answer to actually look at the fact that... okay... so what are these toxins?
So this is our report called the "Organic Food panel" and what we have basically done Kumar is taking the genetic material with evidence-based genetic [information] and actually come up with a report on... what foods each individual should eat based on his own ability to deal with toxins.. [?]
Mr Kumar Sankaran:
Yes...
So what what we've actually done is gone a couple of steps back... we've gone and seen what pesticides are commonly used or
what fertilizers are commonly used to grow these foods and how much of that is actually coming to the human body and... whether genetically a person has enough proteins to break down these pesticides and fertilizers and throw it out of the body... or whether it retains in the body. So those are the kind of markers that we've looked at in this test.
Mr Shiva Subramanian:
Just to give you [the viewer/reader] an idea about some of the things that we're actually covering in this report... you know we talked about gluten and lactose right... that's very commonly spoken about today because many people have issues with this... while the genetic report looks at those markers... I think that we should also put it out there that... you don't need to have the enzymes for a lot of the gluten and lactose if you have a microbiome that can deal with it...
[Kumar] could you say a couple of words on that
Mr Kumar Sankaran:
Sure...
I think my own example of over here... my lactose breaking down enzyme... that I'm genetically coded for... the activity of that enzyme comes down as I age... so as I become older the lesser number of milk products I can have. But I can compensate that by having the right kind of microbiome which will help me break down those milk products... and so I need to have more and more of the bacteria which can produce these enzymes that can break down this these lactate products... so that's that's what the microbiome can compensate for.
Mr Shiva Subramanian:
So just to make it clear... even if your genetics say that you may have an issue with the gluten and lactose [digestion]... your microbiome may be able to deal with it and that's another reason why we need to be able to look at... you know... the prebiotic and the probiotic state of your gut bacteria.
So... all these are not lost... if you have a lactase persistence problem today... you could consume some amount of products with lactose in it... if you're able to redesign your gut bacteria and that goes back to the microbiome.
Mr Kumar Sankaran:
Yes... so that's what we're doing with lactose intolerance... but however with with the pesticides and other chemicals that are coming with the food... microbiome is not yet equipped to throw it out of your body... so that is why we need or looking into those other [genetic] markers looking in to those chemicals.
Mr Shiva Subramanian:
So... let's take a real-life scenario.
I walk into an organic food store and... I'm like okay... my bins going to be really hefty [expensive] if I buy everything
organic... so could I then say... all right... we're looking at organophosphate... so we look at this series of organophosphate foods that you've made a list of [in the report] and say... ah these are the vegetables and fruits that have a greater chance of organophosphates... so I won't buy this... let me buy these [other vegetables and fruits] regularly and I will only get these [organophosphate less] organic [vegetables and fruits]... right !!
I mean that's the kind of report that we want to make actionable to everyone.
Mr Kumar Sankaran:
Precisely... I mean... buying organic is great but... many times it's not affordable, so there are two things you can you can do.
You can either mix and match based on your genetics... [as to] what food you buy organic and what food you buy regular. Or you buy all the normal fruits and vegetables... and just get a good cleanser that can actually remove these chemicals out of these food articles.
So... you could do one of these two things to make yourself more healthy.
Mr Shiva Subramanian:
Excellent !!
One of the sections that you also have over here is antibiotics... could you just expand on that a little bit.
Mr Kumar Sankaran:
A lot of these antibiotics are actually used while... growing these foods... and some of the antibiotics are used in in poultry... [actually] a lot while growing chickens... so what we see is... traces of these antibiotics when we consume our food and if your body is going to react negatively to these antibiotics.... these are kind of foods that you should completely avoid or buy an organic replacement for these foods.
Mr Shiva Subramanian:
Excellent !!
So essentially... the idea was to bring something that could be sold in an organic store... any gym... anywhere... which will highly impact your ability to perform... but not by a performance additive... but by taking out the things that could be toxic for you... [which] could be called as a toxic load that would be diminishing for your body... so that you have more resources to perform.
Mr Kumar Sankaran:
That's that's precisely what we're trying to do... we're trying to reduce the amount of toxins that are entering into your body... that can have a systemic effect.
Mr Shiva Subramanian:
Excellent !!
Also... the economics of this report... could you just share approximate price of this report?!
Mr Kumar Sankaran:
So... what we've tried to do is this... is a very very important thing for of lot of people to look into... when this dictates their monthly spend on organics... so... we wanted something that is economical for them to easily buy, test and then make decisions. So... right now we are retailing at about 5,000 rupees... and you know anybody can [get tested]... it's just a simple swab collection and from that you will get enough information to make a healthy choice.
Mr Shiva Subramanian:
Excellent !!
and... this is available everywhere in the world... and we just gotta send our kit out and... we can get a response for it.. yeah?!
Mr Kumar Sankaran:
We've been getting samples from all over the world right now... and it's very very straightforward... just five minutes in the morning, collect a little bit of saliva and our team will come and pick it up.
Mr Shiva Subramanian:
Excellent !!
Actually... one of the other things.. is that [it is] much less than $100... the idea was to be able to get everybody to shop according to their own genetic potential.
Anyway we have put the report details... with an example of the report or sample report at the bottom as a link and... in addition to that an email where you can get in touch... in case you would like to do one of these organic test.
Thank you, Kumar.
Thank you, Shiva.
